1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to musical stringed instruments and, in particular to a power operated device for a guitar and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present day musical, stringed instrument such as a guitar includes a hollow body having a neck extending therefrom, with laterally spaced tensioned strings being supported in longitudinally extending positions thereon and in pressure contact with a tailpiece. Guitars have fretted necks to serve as a fingerboard. Vibrations of the strings are transmitted from the tailpiece to the top of the body. The top is coupled to the bottom of the body by a post. The top has an opening therein. The top and bottom, the opening, and the hollow interior of the body form a multi-resonant system for coupling the vibrating strings to the air to produce musical tones.
In an electrical guitar the vibrations of the strings are transmitted to a bridge, which bridge in turn transmits the vibrations to a mechano-electric transducer. The transducer converts the mechanical vibrations into corresponding electrical variations. These variations are amplified by suitable electrical means to energize a loud speaker to produce musical tones. In both the conventional guitar and the electrical version thereof the strings are plucked by the fingers or with a pick to cause the strings to vibrate. However, the vibrations of the plucked strings quickly dampen out and the musical tone produced thereby is of short duration.
A major object of the present invention is to provide a manually actuated, power operated device that permits a plurality of rotating members to be brought selectively into light pressure contact with the strings of a musical stringed instrument to cause the latter to vibrate. The strings will vibrate so long as such pressure contact is effected, and as a result novel and unusual musical effects may be achieved from the instrument, such as a conventional or electrical guitar, that are not attainable when the strings are plucked.
Other objects of the invention include providing for detachable mounting of the device to guitars, fully adjustable spacing of the device's rotating members to fit guitars with varied string spacing, a keyboard arrangement conforming to the natural finger positions, and dampening of the action of the rotating members.